FL Corrections Officer Mark Parker (LODD) 25 years later

[AFS1970 504]

I just got this from another (non Emergency Services) forum I post on.

Mark Parker died on Thursday, 25 years after throwing his body in harm's way to protect the residents of Orange County.

Then 19, Parker was gunned down at the old Orange County Courthouse in Orlando on Jan. 10, 1984, in a massacre that changed court security forever across the United States. His wound crippled the young Corrections Officer but never broke his spirit......His funeral will be conducted with full law enforcement line-of-duty death honors at 10 a.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church in Winter Garden. It will include a montage of about 200 photographs of women sitting in Parker's lap and someone, no doubt, will not play his favorite song, "To all the girls I've loved before," by Willie Nelson.

"There's a lot of rhetoric today about (law enforcement and corrections officers) putting their lives on the line, but they really do," Lamar said. "The world has changed since 1984 but the dedication of the people who protect us has not changed."

Here is the full story: Mark Parker, shot in 1984 Orlando courthouse massacre, dies at age 44